Chinese dictator Xi Jinping used a speech to Arab leaders on Thursday to demand the establishment of a state of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and pledged $3 million in funding to a Hamas-affiliated U.N. agency.
Xi opened the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) in Beijing, attended by some of the Middle East’s most influential leaders, including the leaders of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain. The summit is primarily intended to expand Chinese economic influence in the Arab world – Xi prominently promoted China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) during his remarks – but the Communist Party has also proven eager to support the anti-Israel cause in the Middle East, going so far as to engage in talks with the Hamas terrorist organization:
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) May 30, 2024
In addition to Xi’s remarks, China signed onto a joint statement against Israel by participants at the CASCF.
Hamas triggered a war with Israel by invading the country on October 7, killing an estimated 1,200 people, taking another 250 hostage, and engaging in wanton acts of gang rape, infanticide, torture, and desecration of corpses. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded by engaging in self-defense operations in Hamas’s stronghold of Gaza, from where the terrorists invaded, that are ongoing to this day. China has adamantly opposed the self-defense operations and bolstered Hamas, including by claiming to host “unity” talks with Fatah, the Palestinian party in charge of the West Bank. China has also leveraged its permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council to rally anti-Israel sentiment at the international body.
In his remarks on Thursday, as translated by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi insisted that the solution to ending hostilities in the Middle East was not to eradicate terrorist organizations such as Hamas, but, rather, to grant Hamas’s demand of a Palestinian state.
Palestinian militants from the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigade, the armed wing of Hamas, take part in a march in Gaza City on September 14, 2013 (Ahmed Deeb/NurPhoto/Corbis via Getty Images).
“War should not continue indefinitely. Justice should not be absent forever. Commitment to the two-State solution should not be wavered at will,” Xi said. “China firmly supports the establishment of an independent State of Palestine that enjoys full sovereignty based on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
China, he continued, “supports Palestine’s full membership in the U.N., and supports a more broad-based, authoritative and effective international peace conference.”
Xi promised a series of financial investments to alleviate the conflict.
“On top of the previous RMB100 million yuan [$14 million] of emergency humanitarian assistance, China will provide an additional RMB500 million yuan [about $69 billion] of assistance to help ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and support post-conflict reconstruction,” Xi announced. “We will donate U.S.$3 million to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in support of its emergency humanitarian assistance to Gaza.”
“As an Arab saying goes, friends are the sunshine in life. We will continue to work with our Arab friends to carry forward the spirit of China-Arab friendship, build together a better future, and make the road sunny toward a China-Arab community with a shared future!” Xi concluded.
The Chinese dictator did not specify who exactly would receive the 600 million yuan in humanitarian “assistance” independent of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The commitment to UNRWA is notable, however, as the agency lost millions of dollars in funding from state actors after the revelation that some of its employees actively participated in the October 7 atrocities.
For years, evidence had accumulated that UNRWA used its position in Gaza to indoctrinate children into jihad and antisemitism and had otherwise aided Hamas. In January, UNRWA conceded that it had evidence that at least 12 of its employees had participated in the October 7 attack. Separately, the non-governmental organization (NGO) U.N. Watch leaked communications from a group chat including thousands of UNRWA employees in which they appeared to be celebrating the October 7 massacre as it was happening.
In early May, the IDF revealed that it had uncovered what it called a “Hamas command and control center” in a UNRWA complex in Gaza.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Xi prioritized joint economic activity and Chinese expansion into Arab markets.
“China will work with the Arab side to enhance the role of the summit in providing strategic guidance for continued ‘leapfrog growth’ of China-Arab relations,” Xi vowed, according to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Xinhua reported:
Xi said China will work with the Arab side to make China-Arab relations a model for maintaining world peace and stability, a fine example of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, a paradigm of harmonious coexistence between civilizations, and a model for promoting good global governance.
The BRI is China’s global plan to offer predatory loans to poor countries, to be used to pay Chinese companies to build ports, roads, and railways that they could otherwise not afford. China has made agreements with every Arab country in the world through the BRI, including some unique agreements, as with Saudi Arabia, where the partner country will also profit from building projects rather than only cut deals with Chinese contractors.
Other leaders at the China-Arab conference also used their platforms to condemn Israel. Egyptian strongman Abdel Fattah al-Sisi demanded “all active actors of the international community to assume their moral and legal responsibilities to stop the outrageous Israeli war.”
“I further urge the international community to take immediate and decisive action to enforce the instantaneous and unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid and assistance to the Gaza Strip to break the Israeli siege and counter any attempts to forcibly displace the Palestinians from their lands,” Sisi reportedly added.
Egypt is one of the most problematic actors in the ongoing conflict, as it has refused to open its borders to accept Gaza refugees. In October, shortly after the Hamas attack, Sisi boasted that Egypt had welcomed “nine million guests … from many countries who came to Egypt for security and safety,” but Palestinians were not welcome.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 8, 2022 (Photo by Yao Dawei/Xinhua via Getty Images).
“The matter is different as the [Palestinian] cause is the top cause of all Arabs and it is important that [Palestinian] people remain steadfast and present on their lands,” he said.
Sisi later proposed forcing Palestinians into barren land in the Negev Desert.
Sisi joined UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Tunisian President Kais Saied, and the king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, at the Chinese summit.
No reports out of the event at press time indicate that any of the Muslim leaders at the event condemned China’s ongoing genocide of Muslim people in occupied East Turkistan, where Xi has implemented forced sterilization campaigns, imprisoned millions in concentration camps, and systematically enslaved much of the local workforce.
